• Assessment and Evaluation,  Instructional Strategies

    ‘Driving’ the Lesson: The Pre-Assessment (Part I)

    [social_share/] [social-bio] In my last post, I wrote about objectives and the value of pausing in the “everyday” experiences of learning.  In a lesson, one place to really pause and pay attention is during the pre-assessment.  This is the part of the lesson when instructors can assess what students already know and where students contribute their own experiences or ideas to the lesson. Daniel Pink, the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About what Motivates Us, suggests that all human beings have a need “to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.” He claims three principles are central…

  • Instructional Strategies

    Objectives: Pausing in the “Ordinary” Experiences of Learning

    [social_share/] [social-bio] When planning to teach, I like to create an overall road map that helps me discern not only where I’m headed but reminds me of where I’ve been and the places I stopped or struggled along the way.  Let’s face it, almost all teachers have some degree of “content-itis.”  We love information, and lots of it.  Yet we often fail to realize when information is too much, when thinking foregoes feeling, analysis foregoes creativity, or when teaching foregoes learning.  In her book, On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes, Alexandra Horowitz discusses how our inattentiveness to the world around us stops us from seeing the “joy of the…

  • Instructional Strategies

    Bridge-in/Intro: Setting the scene for active learning (Part II: A template)

    [social_share/] [social-bio] In my previous post, I used the analogy of an opening scene (Footloose) to illustrate the role that the bridge-in plays in setting up expectations for further learning. To plan and facilitate active learning, I use a BOPPPS lesson plan template that I’ve modified slightly from resource provided through the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) Resource Network.  My version has four vertical columns labeled “what I do” (teaching methods, instructions for myself), “how to encourage students to actively engage” (notes on facilitation including examples of questions to ask students), “what my students do” (learning activities), and “intended learning objectives or outcome”.  This template forces me to plan in more…

  • Instructional Strategies

    Bridge-in / Intro: Setting the Scene for Active Learning (Part I: An analogy)

    [social_share/] [social-bio] Most teachers use the bridge-in as a means to introduce their lessons in an engaging way, build capacity and motivation to learn, or garner students’ attention or interest. I view the bridge-in as an opportunity for students to actively learn and participate in my class. This post builds on Carolyn’s analogy that the bridge-in of a lesson may be compared to the opening scenes of a movie, in which purpose, topics, or general story are introduced.  Music is a well-known cue in film: think of any movie and the music that accompanied the opening scenes of the story.  An example that springs to mind immediately is the movie,…

  • Instructional / Course Design,  Instructional Strategies

    Communicating Expectations: The Course Syllabus & First Day of Class

    [social_share/] [social-bio] This post was originally published on the GSR 989: Philosophy and Practice of University Teaching blog on February 28, 2014. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the course syllabus and the impression it gives students on our first day of class. Personally, I like to think of the syllabus as a map with the following components: Where are we headed?  (What are we studying and why?)  How do we get there? (schedule, readings, assignments, etc) How do we know when we’ve arrived? (exams, evaluation, etc)  What will it be like along the way?  (classroom climate, expectations, behaviour) After coming up with this metaphor, I did some reading…

  • Curriculum Development,  Instructional / Course Design

    Finding Our Footing With Our Communities

    [social_share/] [social-bio] With Susan Bens Some time ago our Centre received a suggestion to tailor one of our increasingly known and appreciated Course Design Institutes specifically for those aiming to incorporate community-engaged learning. A team of us came together to begin that process and it’s fair to say we struggled to find our footing. After a few meetings, this led us to ask the question: “Do we really know what is needed by faculty with respect to community-engaged learning?” Our honest answer to ourselves was at best, a “maybe”. Since “maybe” isn’t good enough when planning a high-impact learning experience, we decided to take a few steps back in order to…

  • Instructional Strategies

    Variations on Think Pair Share

    [social_share/] [social-bio] In preparing to teach about active learning methods this week, I came across an interesting variation of think pair share developed by Johnson, Johnson, & Smith (1991) called Formulate Share Listen Create. If you aren’t familiar with it, the think pair share is a versatile activity that can be done in many creative ways during a class.  It combines discussion with an application of course content, while providing think time for problem-solving and/or reflection. Think: ask an engaging question or pose an interesting problem; students are given a minute to think about or write down their responses Pair: Students share responses with each other and re-evaluate Share: Instructor…

  • General,  Instructional / Course Design,  Instructional Strategies

    Reflecting On Your SEEQ Course Evaluations

    [social-bio] Most of us dread, or at the least, have mixed feelings about receiving feedback on our teaching, especially from standardized course evaluation tools such as the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality instrument (SEEQ).  However, many new insights may be gained by continuously reflecting on our actions as teachers and by opening ourselves up to a process of continual learning about pedagogy.  In a pdf booklet entitled Students Rating Teaching, teachers are challenged and encouraged to reflect upon the quality, usefulness, and potential difficulties of SEEQ data in relation to their teaching practice as opposed to simply reading their SEEQ results (Lawall n.d.).  This year when you receive your SEEQ…

  • General,  Instructional / Course Design

    Looking Back, Moving Forward

    [social-bio] As the academic term draws to a close and after my marking is complete, I find myself looking back over the semester, determining which learning activities went well and why, the teaching goals I set forth for myself, where I succeeded and fell short, and what I should do differently the next time I teach.  For me, the process of reflecting on my teaching practice, or “recapturing my experience, thinking about it, mulling it over, and evaluating it” (Boud, Keogh, & Walker 1985) begins on the last day of class when I ask my students to come prepared to tell me one significant thing they’ve learned or taken away…

  • Book Reviews,  Instructional / Course Design,  Instructional Strategies

    Ideas that ‘Stick’

    [social-bio] The Book: Heath, C. and Heath, D. 2008.  Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die.  New York: Random House Why do we remember certain things, like the scary music from the movie Jaws, but forget others, like the name of that theory we learned in economics class years ago?  Why is it easier for some people to remember an urban legend about missing kidneys than a concept they studied in the college or university classroom?  Why do some ideas “stick” while others are just as easily forgotten? This question is the premise of the New York Times bestseller book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive…